Villages and Market Towns in Hong Kong

Most histories of Hong Kong begin with the arrival of the British, and only incidentally mention the pre-colonial eras. In this book, Patrick Hase, one of the leaders in the field, provides an important addition to the history of Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region, covering topics such as Chinese ethnicity, commerce, port-towns, and squatting. It is a truly excellent work that will interest historians, anthropologists, and social scientists.

This book, an historical and archaeological portrayal of Hong Kong market villages across the territory, depicts how Hong Kong evolved not through chronicles of emperors and governors but through the ups and downs of different centres of rural life over the centuries. It belongs beyond the bookshelves of historians and archaeologists—anyone wandering the streets of Hong Kong neighbourhoods today wondering “how did this place get to be here?” will find this book well worth reading. After reading this book, I will never again look at Tsim Sha Tsui in quite the same way.

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How have places in Hong Kong evolved since well before the 19th century? Villages and Market Towns in Hong Kong is a vital book, showing us how its various suburban settlements came into being. Such is a history of immense interest as well as unending fascination.

Since arriving at Hong Kong more than half a century ago, Patrick Hase has been researching its local history, with a particular focus on the market towns and villages in the New Territories. Due to a lack of written documentation for the study of these communities, much of his research was conducted through oral interviews with village elders in the 1980s and 1990s. Hase sought their memories of the villages in their youth, as well as their grandparents’ accounts of the communities prior to the age of high technology, urbanization, and modernization.